What Have You Left Behind?

Summary

What Have You Left Behind? documents the experiences of ordinary Yemenis whose lives have been devastated by the country’s civil war. Writer and journalist Bushra al-Maqtari travelled across Yemen to collect testimonies from civilians affected by violence, displacement, and the destruction of their communities. Rather than focusing on political leaders or military strategy, the book gives space to individuals who have lost family members, homes, livelihoods, and any sense of security. Their accounts reveal the intimate consequences of a conflict often reduced to statistics and geopolitical analysis. By bringing together voices from different parts of the war’s divided landscape, al-Maqtari exposes the human suffering behind competing political narratives. The book explores grief, survival, and the struggle to preserve dignity amid devastation, serving as a powerful record of civilian experiences and a challenge to the international indifference that allows such suffering to continue.